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Keeping Your Summer Shape: Fitness Foods

Take advantage of the freshest season. Summer offers a wide variety of fruits and vegetables packed with nutrients. Not only does local, seasonal food taste better, but less time traveling from farm to home means it holds onto more of the vitamins and minerals that help your body maintain its best shape.

Now, what if you could combine delicious summer foods with a full workout? Here are three healthy food activities to help you keep summer going:

Walk Don’t Drive to the Farmers Market

There's truly nothing like the flavor of food that's ripe and ready to be eaten from your local farmers' market. Make it a point to power-walk, hike or jog to the farmers’ market. Balance the weight in each hand and now you have some strength training to go with your cardio. If your community has several open air markets, make a circuit and visit all of them on foot on a Saturday morning.

Arrange a Backyard Exchange

Maybe you’re lucky enough to grow vegetables and herbs in your own backyard or community garden. You can still turn your home garden into a walking workout. Create a produce exchange with nearby neighbors or friends across town. Trade tomatoes for peppers, or swap your special strain of squash for salad greens. Get up early to beat the heat and stay out of your car to reinforce the health benefits.

Hit the Water

You might notice that most of the fruits and veggies available throughout summer are a great source of water. Melons are colorful low-calorie snacks. Watermelons consist almost entirely of water, with cantaloupe and honeydew equally weighty and wonderful. Carry any of these melons home from the store, market or garden and you’ll have a complete workout.